In June, H-F hired alumnus and former assistant coach at Bolingbrook High School Brandin Brown as the new head varsity basketball coach.
Brown boasts an extensive resume. He had coaching experience from a variety of outlets before Bolingbrook, including St. Viator High School, the Illinois Speed program and sponsor program Meanstreets, as well as co-founding Flight Athletics in 2019.
Flight Athletics is a basketball program based in the southwest suburbs of Chicago that nurtures athletes from the ages of five to 17. Flight runs year-round, working on different objectives depending on the season and hosting a basketball summer camp that caters to various skill levels.
Former head coach Jamere “JD” Dismukes resigned in May to become the assistant coach at Long Island University in New York after leading H-F basketball to a state championship in 2024.
“H-F has performed incredibly well over the last few years, and it puts the team into such an exciting spot,” Brown remarked, commending the team’s performance. “I’m very excited for the new guys to showcase the talent they have to the community.”
The decision to return to H-F was impossible for Brown to decline, as he had played on the team himself all four years of high school, alongside fellow alumni and 2008 Mr. Basketball of Illinois Kevin Dillard.
“H-F is different as a whole, holding that vision of excellence, whether it’s any sport or it’s academics, just the expectations that the coaches and the students have for themselves, it’s not something you’re gonna find anywhere else, and to have the resources to support that, it’s very different from other schools,” Brown said.
Brown describes his coaching as a mix of all those that came before him. “Coach JD and I are really great friends, we’ve coached in the same program before, and I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot from him as well as Coach Rob Brost from Bolingbrook, Coach Mike O’Keeffe at St. Viator, Tai Streets and all the great people I’ve worked with,” Brown shared. “I like to use a combination of what I’ve learned from them with a twist of my own.”
Making an impact on the students’ lives on and off the court is always a goal for Brown, and getting the few seniors on the team into good colleges is a top priority. Still, he emphasizes that the team is mainly composed of younger players with little to no varsity experience.
“The only way to get that experience is to get them out there and see how they work,” he states. Brown anticipates that the team will grow to gel with one another, the staff and the court more and more, as they already have.
When coming into an established team as a new coach, it’s essential to know how to compromise. “I’m coming in with a mindset of not ‘this is how we have to play’ but more so realizing what we already have in the players and making sure we execute that on the court and show that off,” Brown explained. “They’re gonna play hard, and the hard work will show through our success.”
